Artist Ai Weiwei has had a complicated relationship with surveillance cameras. Brain Pickings (via Brendan O’Kane) illuminates one facet of this with Ai’s instructions for making a long-reach camera-blocking device, from Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Do It: The Compendium. For academic purposes only:
Do you feel uncomfortable, confused, disgusted, or even irate because of a surveillance camera fixed at the wrong place? To block its view, spray-painting would be the best choice. It is highly accessible, inexpensive, and effective. Moreover, it is a perfect gesture in presenting street culture.
It is difficult to spray on a surveillance camera at a high place directly by hand. Instead of carrying a ladder on the streets, it is more practical to make an adjustable, easy-to-carry, and low-cost spray device.
It is best to use materials easily found from daily life to create this tool. [Source]
Michael Standaert suggests earning bonus points by using pollution-absorbing paint. CDT does not encourage or condone the use of spray paint for neutralizing cameras or marking diplomatic compounds for demolition.
